A SIMPLE METHOD FOR DETECTING ADULTERATION IN SUNFLOWER OIL USING CHEMOMETRY

Edible oil is an indispensable source of energy for human beings. Nowadays in India, Sunflower oil is replacing the traditional oils pertaining to its qualities such as good in poly unsaturated Fatty acid, less in mono unsaturated fatty acid content and also has a good aroma. As demand for the oil increases,various cases are reported on sunflower oil adulteration with other cheap oils such as palm oil , castor oil and other inedible oils. Our aim is to identify a simple method to discriminate sunflower oil with palm oil , castor oil and Paraffin oil using colorimeter. Colorimeter measures the absorption of light by the substance, for a given wavelength. As sunflower oil is lightyellow in color , when it is adulterated with other oils the absorption changes. This method is simple as it does not require any sample preparation when compared to the chromatographic and spectroscopic methods.Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique is employed to identify the minimum percentageof adulteration detection. Regression is used for quantifying intermediate percentage of adulteration.